


Late

by jeejaschocolate



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Canon Compliant, Daddy Issues, Established Relationship, Father/Son Incest, Inspired by Fanart, Kissing, M/M, Mentions of Sex, No Smut, Possible Unrequited Love, Problematic problematic problematic, Romance, Unapologetically bad people, Villains written as humans, but humans, did I mention it's problematic?, fantasies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-08
Updated: 2019-09-08
Packaged: 2020-10-12 04:08:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20557979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jeejaschocolate/pseuds/jeejaschocolate
Summary: There’s something that will always bring Akechi back to Shido. Specifically, back to his office late at night.





	Late

**Author's Note:**

> Small gift fic for a friend of mine (who wishes to remain anon), inspired by [their awesome piece of shiake fanart](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/608166918049759243/617075260923314216/image0.jpg) (posted here with their permission) which you should all see. And love, and adore (like I do heheh).
> 
> No smut, FOR ONCE!! Just lots of feels.

Akechi glanced at his phone. It was already past midnight. 

He’d been working all day. TV interview at 8:00 in the morning (some ‘Good Morning’ program on cable news). Then he’d been consulting with Nijima-san on some criminal cases until around 2:00 in the afternoon. Then a photoshoot for a teen idol magazine (just pictures today, the follow-up interview would come next weekend). 

Then the rest of the day in the metacognitive world, getting some work done for Shido. Work that required the black mask. He felt the weight of the gun in his briefcase—the gun he used in that world—and pointedly shifted the case to his other hand. The gun wasn’t really heavy (actually it was surprisingly light; that’s the interesting thing). It was just there. Always there. Pressing on one corner of his mind. Like a pop-up ad that wouldn’t go away no matter how many times you deleted it. Persistent. The gun was a pain in the ass and a joke and a chore and a constant. All these things at once, but it was always there. 

Also tonight was Sunday. A school night. 

Swiping his finger across his phone’s screen idly, Akechi considered his options. The logical thing to do would be to head home. Get some rest for the week ahead. His alarm would ring at 5:00 am whether he was ready for it or not. Plus, exams were coming up…

Even so, Akechi opened the text message thread and began typing.

**G: ** _Are you still working?_

Really, it was a stupid question. Shido was always technically ‘working.’ His brain didn’t have an off switch. He could be doing whatever the hell he wanted but part of him would always be thinking about work. Socializing? That was just a side job. Politicking and schmoozing. The normal stuff. Drinking? A necessary drug to take the edge off every so often (even if Shido overindulged and they both knew it). A recharge for the work. Sleeping? Probably dreaming about world domination. Hell, fucking? Shido could devote himself to fucking for as long as it took him to get off. A few minutes after climax Shido would start thinking about work again. Wondering about his next moves, aloud or in his head. It was like clockwork, you could set your watch by it. You really could. (Akechi should know; he was there. These days he was one of Shido’s main fucks. Possibly _only_ fuck, if his deductions were correct. So he knew better than anyone.)

The man was always working. To be fair, Akechi understood that. He didn’t question it. The text message was only a formality. 

He got on his bike and started pedaling. On auto-pilot. He knew the way by muscle memory at this point. There was only one place he would go, only one place that held any interest for him at this time of night. Only one place he would find his father. At this hour or any other.

It was a fifteen minute bike ride to Shido’s office building. 

When he arrived, he locked his bike in the usual place and checked his phone again. He found a text waiting for him in reply. 

**S: ** _It’s late. _

Akechi’s face twitched in amusement. He could read a whole conversation from those two words. Shido had been on a bender recently, working excessively long hours at the office. The fact that he responded at all meant he was still at the office instead of home sleeping (as expected). But he was saying ‘it’s late’ in an effort to deter Akechi from coming over. A half-hearted effort, but still. He was tired. Probably too tired for sex, which is why he didn’t want Akechi coming over. Didn’t feel up to performing tonight. Naturally, he would only ever point to indisputable facts to cast shadows over the truth and steer the conversation towards the subjective.

Yes, it was late. And, so what? Akechi owned a watch and a phone. He knew the time.

It was a little bit funny. Being able to read Shido so well now. 

Akechi marched himself into the building with purpose. His heart fluttered the way it always did when he went to meet his father. His palms became a little greasy inside his gloves, the adrenaline getting to him. Even after all this time! So many months with the truth laid bare between them and their new reality. Father and son, lover and lover. Both at the same time. It should have been a lot to take in, but it really wasn’t. 

The truth wasn’t something that easily eluded either of them. 

Facts were facts. Blood was blood and sex…well, sex was an obvious conclusion for them. The attraction had been instantaneous and electric from the moment Akechi met Shido in person for the first time. Once they started fooling around, it was a slippery slope. (Neither one of them held all the blame for instigating it. They both sent out signals and picked up on the cues. It just…happened. One day you’re plotting the best way to destroy your absentee father’s career, the next day you’re straddling his lap. Riding his dick like a fucking equestrian champion. Life was weird like that.) So things happened, this became that, and priorities shifted. Imperceptibly at first, then a lot. 

Perhaps even more than originally bargained for…

Anyway, the sex was fun. Really, really goddamn fun. Akechi didn’t have any qualms with it (why should he?) and he was sure Shido didn’t either. Fucking your son probably fell near the same category of evil as first degree murder by proxy. In which case, Akechi was also quite guilty.

It didn’t matter so much anymore. They wore their new statuses with uncanny ease. 

Yet even now, it was hard. It was always hard seeing Shido because Akechi never knew…well, he didn’t know exactly what kind of mood his father would be in. Some moods left room for Akechi’s existence and some didn’t. (That was the best way to put it.) Day by day, little by little, Akechi was carving out space for himself in his father’s realm of tolerable thoughts, but it wasn’t so simple! Getting fucked was easy enough (Shido rarely denied Akechi that). The hard part was everything else. Conversation. Being in the same room when Shido was pissed about something. A pissed off Shido usually meant Akechi would get scolded for breathing the wrong way and sent home with his tail between his legs. It seemed Shido hadn’t ever learned how to compartmentalize his anger like Akechi had (painstakingly, he might add). 

Still, Akechi kept trying. Kept showing up. Kept working (he had no list of things he wouldn’t do for Shido, clearly). He wanted…he wanted to prove himself as a worthy companion. He wanted Shido to think he was strong. Durable. Useful, for sex and work and…other things maybe. Akechi himself didn’t quite know what else, but. He showed up. Whether or not he saw any improvement. Sometimes he felt like he was taking two steps forward and three steps back. He made progress just as easily as he lost it sometimes. On and on they went. 

Thankfully, there was always the sex. The best way to make himself available to Shido was through sex, of course. If they had nothing else, they had that. 

But tonight…Akechi hadn’t come to the office looking for sex. 

It was late, after all.

The elevator took Akechi to the top floor. He hadn’t texted Shido back; he figured he’d just walk in and let the chips fall where they would. The gloves would hide his sweaty palms anyway, and Akechi could smile through anything. Literally anything. 

He knocked on Shido’s office door but didn’t wait for a response before waltzing in. 

Shido sat at his desk against the backdrop of Tokyo at night. Tiny lights in the distance like holes poking through black fabric. The soft glow from his tablet screen partially illuminated his face. Other than that, the office was completely dark. The glare from Shido’s orange tinted glasses covered his eyes. Akechi couldn’t read his expression. 

“I told you it’s late,” Shido announced. His voice was cold. Dispassionate, but not annoyed. Yet. 

“Why is it so dark in here?” Akechi asked, avoiding that comment. He set his briefcase down on the couch and took his shoes off. Getting comfortable. “You’ll hurt your eyes, you know.” 

Truthfully speaking, Akechi didn’t care so much about Shido’s eyes (the man wore those protective glasses, he’d be fine, plus he was already old-ish). He just wanted some light so he could get a better look at Shido’s face. Shido had a number of facial tells that helped Akechi know how he should respond. How to navigate a conversation. He felt blind without them.

He reached for the lamp on Shido’s desk, but Shido stopped him. Grabbed his wrist. “Leave it off,” he barked. 

“Okay…” Akechi froze. He waited for Shido to make the next move. Pull him in for a rough kiss—they were in close enough proximity, and the air around them crackled with delightful tension, the way it normally did. Either they were about to fuck or Shido would push him away in disgust. 

It was usually a hundred miles in one direction or a hundred miles in the other with Shido. Entirely pleased (and devilishly horny) or entirely revolted. 

But this time, Shido just held onto him for a few moments. The fingers of his strong hand wrapped around the delicate skin on Akechi’s wrist. Between the sleeve of his blazer and the cuff of his glove. They both seemed to be waiting for something. The clock ticked awkwardly in the background as time passed. 

Slowly, Shido dropped his hand and pulled away. It felt almost like a caress. At least, Akechi shivered like it was.

(He remembered that one time, a few weeks back, after they were done having sex…it was late afternoon. Akechi was sitting in Shido’s lap haphazardly clothed, tie askew, hair mussed, and naked from the waist down. Greedily holding Shido’s cock in his ass. Refusing to let it go until he was pushed away.While they both panted, getting their breath back after climax, Shido casually ran his hand down the side of Akechi’s face. At first Akechi thought it might have been an accident, but then Shido did it again. And again. Then he combed back the hair stuck to his face. Kissed him softly on the temple.

The whole world shimmered as if frozen in crystal, prisms cast in all directions. Time slowed and Akechi felt like he was flying. Like he was being held—in _that_ way. That special way he’d never truly experienced before. The ones the kids he played with as a child used to talk about when they spoke of their parents, or the one people wrote love songs about. Warm arms. Or something. 

When his father kissed him gently and touched his face like that, Akechi felt clear. Lighter, like he could breathe better. Buoyed by pillowy clouds forming in his chest and his heart and his head and _everywhere_. 

Akechi wanted to kiss Shido like that too. He wanted it to be a thing they did. Regularly, like the sex. He even tried to—he leaned in for a soft kiss on Shido’s lips, but…

…his father turned away. Slapped his ass with enough force to mean he was being dismissed. 

“Get up, now,” Shido told him, turning towards his tablet. Already not seeing Akechi. “I have a meeting in ten minutes.” 

And Akechi did as he was told. Because he always would.) 

Sighing, Akechi shrugged his shoulders to cover up his shiver. He looked out the window pointedly. Seeing nothing but formless shapes in the outline of the city. 

He didn’t like thinking about that one time. He just didn’t. 

“Fine,” he said indifferently. “But don’t complain to me when your eyes get weaker and your prescription goes up.” He shrugged. “I guess shortsightedness isn’t the worst sin a politician can commit.” 

Not that they were counting sins anyway. And if they were, this wouldn’t be one of them. Akechi knew that Shido liked a little sassiness every now and then. Some backtalk. Just to keep his interest. He’d worked hard enough to earn the place in Shido’s good graces where the man appreciated that kind of thing. 

“Heh.” Shido grunted a short chuckle in acknowledgement. Then he leaned back in his chair and took off his glasses. He rubbed his eyes hard, massaging the tiredness and strain out of them. 

In tablet’s dim, sterile glow, Akechi finally got a decent look at his father. Honestly, he looked like shit. 

‘Worn down’ was the proper description. Akechi couldn’t help the concern that flared up in his chest. He’d seen Shido looking all types of ways these past few months. Pissed, enraged, excited, turned on, cumming, proud (which was sort of like neutral for him), and focused. But he’d never seen this before. Truly tired. Showing his age in a negative way. 

It was actually disturbing. 

Saying nothing, Akechi walked around the desk to stand at Shido’s side. He hesitantly tugged at Shido’s hands, pulling them away from his eyes. “Don’t,” he reprimanded quietly. “You’ll make it worse.” 

Shido looked up at Akechi with a wry expression. Blinking blearily without his glasses. His eyes were bloodshot. “Well. Maybe, but…” he sighed. “I think the problem with me is I see things too clearly sometimes.” 

Akechi thought his ears were on fire. Or that he was tripping on something or dreaming. Shido had never—not once, ever—condescended to admitting to having any kind of ‘problem.’ Not with anything in his grand plan and especially not in himself or his personality. He regarded himself as untouchable in the highest extreme. And now here he was saying something like _that,_ out of the blue?

Unheard of. Akechi shook his head to clear it. Shido must really be tired. Maybe it was later than he’d realized. 

Without thinking, Akechi reached out and pressed small circles into Shido’s cheekbones. Massaging his weary face. It hurt to see Shido like this. The man Shido was in his head showed no weakness. Ever. 

But Akechi would still come to him no matter how weak Shido was. Always. Even if Shido worked himself into the ground. Even if (or maybe ‘when’) his plan failed miserably. Akechi would be there for him. Not to say that he knew he would always be welcome, because of course he didn’t know that. In fact there was decent evidence that he wouldn’t be wanted at all under extreme circumstances. Still, Akechi would never leave him. 

His body ached with the desire to stroke Shido’s face. To soothe away the wrinkles and the bone-deep weariness. To tell him the things in his heart that were getting too heavy to carry around in secret day after day. To put Shido to bed and kiss him goodnight. Like…

He was thinking about that one time again. 

“Mmm…” Shido hummed contentedly into Akechi’s hands. “That feels pretty good.” 

Akechi glowed. “I’m glad. I think you should head to bed for tonight.” He thumbed the stubble on Shido’s chin. “Get some rest. The work will still be there in the morning.” 

Shido’s lips twitched into something like a quarter of a smile. “I guess you have a point, Akechi-kun.” 

…He did? Akechi was elated! Shido had acknowledged Akechi a handful of times in the past, always in regard to something to do with the metaverse. That was Akechi’s specialty, his area of expertise. To be acknowledged about something mundane for once was…exhilarating. Was Shido drunk? Was he delirious from sleep deprivation? 

Whatever. Didn’t matter.

Akechi couldn’t help wondering what Shido would let him get away with right now. 

Grinning, toes squirming with glee, heart pounding, Akechi laid a soft kiss on Shido’s forehead. The man’s skin was surprisingly soft in that place. Warm, implying the blood underneath. Like a human. 

Happiness smoldered inside Akechi. He wanted to kiss Shido like that again. So he did. And Shido said nothing. He just sat there with his eyes closed, letting Akechi do what he wanted.

For one feverish moment—for now, for tonight—Akechi felt like the most powerful creature in the world. 

He’d done it. He’d won! He’d weaseled his way in to Shido’s confidence and now the man finally had his guard down! Akechi could probably exact perfect revenge for every torturous moment of his childhood right now if he wanted! 

Hmm…what to do, what to do….he could stab him in the back, or spit on him, or exert his power in some humiliating way and blackmail Shido for it later…he could…well, he could do anything! 

Seconds passed. Akechi kept his lips pressed to Shido’s skin. He should get moving. Clearly the reins were in his hands tonight, so he’d be the one to make the next move. (Finally! After all these years of scheming!)

And yet…

And yet all Akechi did was take Shido’s hands and pull him to his feet. There was only one thing he wanted right now. It would be a waste to use this time for anything else. 

There would be time for all the other things. Probably. Almost definitely. All the time in the world. For now, Akechi wanted to do just this. 

He grabbed Shido’s lapels and pulled him in for a deep kiss on the lips. It was intimate and it was strong. Unbreakable, you could say, because Akechi had no intention of letting go until he was totally done. For once, though, it wasn’t hungry. The kiss wasn’t a preamble to something building like steam, no. It was just a kiss. No tongue. Very little movement. Just two sets of lips locked together for an indeterminable amount of time. 

Akechi’s hand slid down to Shido’s wrist. He held him fast in place. His other hand went exploring and curled around the back of Shido’s head. Leather sliding against bald skin. He angled his father’s head downward to deepen their kiss. Shido let him. 

“Goro…” Shido whispered, speaking low right against Akechi’s mouth. 

His father had never called him that before. His first name. It was a revelation. A shot in the chest. Peeling back the layers of Akechi’s defenses like the covers of a book. 

That warm feeling was back. The one from that time. Only now it went straight to Akechi’s head and he thought he might swoon. He was riding high, getting lost in the sensation of body heat and touch and _Shido, _like this, open to him. Sharing a kiss that didn’t need to be anything else. As close to an admission as Akechi would ever get—an admission of all the things he knew without giving words to them. 

He wanted Shido to hold him some more. To wrap him in his arms and stroke his face like before. He wanted Shido to whisper in his ear before they fell asleep together. He wanted to be there in the morning when he woke up. He wanted to make Shido breakfast and talk about the day ahead of them. He wanted to meet up again when the day was done so that they could kiss some more.

It would be…

…nice. So nice. 

A million fantasies raced through Akechi’s mind. He shouldn’t be thinking this. He really shouldn’t. Tonight was nothing, just a night when Shido was a little off balance because of sleep deprivation and stress. If he let himself start thinking these things then…

Then…

It would ruin him. Ruin everything. 

But maybe…it would build something completely new. The idea of what that could be was a little scary. 

Fortunately, Akechi didn’t have to ruminate on that concept too long because Shido was pulling away. Shifting out of Akechi’s grasp. Feeling around the desk for his glasses. The tablet screen had gone to black and they were standing in darkness. Their eyes had adjusted though. Akechi could see his father quite well.

He looked like a man. 

_His _man. Akechi broke into a grin. Eyes sparkling. He tucked the prospect of this sudden new development away in his mind. A place he could easily find it later when he had time. 

Shido sighed as he put his glasses back on. “I should really get back to work…” 

Had the moment passed?

Akechi decided to test his luck. He put a hand on Shido’s shoulder and said, “Not tonight. You’re too tired. Let’s go home, okay?”

An irritable grumble escaped Shido’s lips. He plopped himself down into his chair again. Waking up the tablet. “Home?” he asked ruthlessly. “Where’s that? What are you talking about?” 

“I don’t know…” 

To be fair, Akechi had no idea what he meant by ‘home.’ They didn’t share an apartment or anything like that. Akechi had never seen the inside of Shido’s place, (though he knew where it was; he’d walked there out of curiosity once or twice, a high rise building in Roppongi). Nor Shido had never been to Akechi’s studio apartment. The only place they ever met was the office. The office was where they fucked, where they talked about work. And those were the two things they did together. So. 

Akechi glanced around the office. Maybe this was all they had together. He considered that for a moment. 

Eh, well. It wasn’t the worst place in the world. As booty-call joints went, you could do worse. And as a home…honestly, Akechi had never had one of those. So he wouldn’t know the difference. 

He laid down on the couch, spreading himself out. Getting comfortable. He draped his school blazer over himself as a makeshift blanket.

“What are you doing?” Shido asked, peering at Akechi like he had decided to do a handstand in the middle of traffic. 

“Sleeping,” Akechi replied. He closed his eyes and put his phone on the arm above his head. Ready for the alarm that would go off in a few hours. “I have school tomorrow.” 

Shido grumbled something under his breath that Akechi couldn’t decipher. But he didn’t stop him. Once again, he let it happen. 

Sleep came easy to Akechi after that. The couch was surprisingly comfortable. As was Shido’s cold presence across the room. Vigilant in a disengaged kind of way. Akechi liked it.

Sometime in the middle of the night, Akechi felt weighed down by something slightly heavier than his blazer. He blinked in the early sun and thought he saw a black suit jacket covering him. It smelled nice. Cigarettes, expensive cologne, and dry cleaning. Familiar. Warm. Akechi buried his face in the collar and fell asleep; he was too tired to check properly, to see if his eyes deceived him.

In the morning, Shido was gone. So was the jacket, if it had ever been there at all. Real life breathed down his neck. Hounding him. Chasing away the mysteries and fantasies from the night before. Akechi’s alarm was loud and the ride to school would be long. Annoying. No time for breakfast. Not even coffee. 

They’d probably never talk about that night again. There wasn’t much to say. Most of it had just been Akechi living inside his own head again. He’d never really know by how much.

But he’d be back. Tonight, most likely. And the night after. Akechi knew himself well enough to know that.

He’d always be back. 

**Author's Note:**

> ~~For my shiake fam. All we can do is feed each other <3 <3~~
> 
> Open ending because...who really knows with these guys? They definitely deserve each other, but, how does it all play out? We can only speculate (and I will, thanks, I'll be over here in hell for a while lol). 
> 
> Thanks for reading! Hit me up on the usual social media (twitter @jeejastea, tumblr @jeejsacoffee, discord @jeejasz). Let's talk about persona, shall we? So much to unpack there.


End file.
